Final Fantasy XIV doesn't actually have that good of a story

[SmashingQuasar]

So I played in 1.0, stopped as many people did. I came back for 2.0 and stopped again because the game was barely playable for us Europeans.

I started again a few months ago and I am at the end of SB.

I have to say, I've been let down with the story because people have hyped it way too much.

The story isn't bad by any means. The problem is the storytelling. It is slow. Terribly slow.
People will tell you "It's because it's a Japanese game, it's just the way it is.". No. It's not. Dark Souls, Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Fire Emblem, The Evil Within are all Japanese games and they do not have such a slow storytelling pace.
People will tell you "It's because a JRPG". Again, I'm sorry, no. I played all main FF games from VI to XIII and the only one that is really slow (and still faster than XIV) is XIII and honestly it's not praised for it's pace, quite the opposite. I even do a yearly run of FFX because it's one of my favorite games of all time and still watch all cutscenes and it's not nearly that slow. In FFX you don't have 4-5 hours of side quests telling you all about the Hypello (I'm pretty sure people don't even remember them). In the case of XIV, you would have 4-5 hours of quests with them followed by an entire beast tribe of Hypello unlocking you a Shoopuff mount at the end.

FFXIV is clearly one of the slowest paced game I have ever played.

I have a second problem with this storytelling. SQEX is force-feeding us all of the lore in the MSQ. The side quests (non-blue, non-MSQ) are almost completely dry of any lore. The items are almost completely dry of any lore as well. There is no real incentive to search every nook and cranny for lore. This is a big issue for me.
One of the things I love in Dark Souls is how they tell you the story, you have to look for the pieces and put them together. Now this may be too extreme for many people, which I totally get, but in FFXIV I feel like a goose being force-fed food. Sure the Qalyana seem interesting, but I didn't want to be force fed their lore in the MSQ. Same goes for the Kojin. It is way, way too much.

[SmashingQuasar]

Now all of that needs to be put into context. Veterans, remember: You did that at a super slow pace because you did it when it first got released. New players are being force fed several hundreds of hours of non-voiced walls of text before being able to engage into the current content.

"The game does not start at level 80!". Theoretically it doesn't. However how many of the people who tell you that would be willing to do synced MIL no echo content from ARR, HW or SB? I doubt this would be a majority. People are upset when sprouts queue for EX in DF because they are slowed into their Astrope farm.
Many, many players play MMORPGs for high-end PvE among other things. I would gladly progress into Coils synced MIL no echo as much as I can with no rush doing MSQ, but that's simply not really possible, at least on a regular basis. So what's left? Crafting? Yes, crafting is great. It's not going to compensate the lack of challenging PvE though. So we have to go through MSQ... and we start resenting the story because of that.

This brings my third and last problem with the storytelling: Everything is gated behind MSQ. Everything.
Now that may be great when you are here on patch day, but when you just started and you have all of ARR, HW, SB and ShB to do, it's not. Really not.
Even if you want to level your gathering, you have to do MSQ, because the next areas are gated behind MSQ. Even if you are level 80 doing roulettes and have 2000 tomestone, you won't be able to purchase any gear, because you have to do MSQ.

A large part of the MMO crowd plays for gameplay, challenge and completion. Those people do not play mainly for the story. If you want to attract those people, you can't throw the MSQ mountain in front of them and force them to climb.

"We don't want those people in the game" - Then don't complain the game does not have a budget high enough to give you 3 ultimates per expansion, or an infrastructure rework for housing, or a glamour log. More players will give the game a higher budget, which will benefit everyone. Gatekeeping the game will simply prevent it from progressing.

[Pandie_Goodies]

I stopped reading after you compared last of us 2 with this game.

Good bait. You almost had me on wanting to rebuke you on why doing menial tasks as a WoL is important to the story but I don't think you care since you just wanna see people react to this mess of a post.

[KaTnIs]

Nah for me it is. Even some sidequests gives me tears in my eyes.

And yes FF14 has a better Story than TLOU2.

[ViolaLance]

Subjective in all sense and aspects. Although, one doesn't need to be fully entertained by simply a good story. Many different stories and plots out there with stories that are absolutely terrible, but is greatly praised for its entertainment, no matter the media it is presented in.

Each person has similar and vastly different tastes when it comes to entertainment. People often use personal experiences for good and bad to compare as well to narrate their reasons, as well some will hang on the opinions of others to assist in their own as an absolute. Both are fine, but it is just that personal either way and doesn't speak nor show that it a sample of everyone, let alone a fraction within it as well.

The OP used tLoU2 (The Last of Us 2) moderately decent game. Many like it many don't. Certain "gaming sites" use it as a social-political weapon for vilification and praise.

Haven't played it yet? Get called a [mean naughty label]
Didn't really like/enjoy it or share anytype of criticism on it? You are compared to [Nasty horrible people]

Like the game while sharing only the thing positive? Treated as a [Cultural Savior]

Many should know the these sites already that hammered these views while trying to burn down other games equal of praise.

It is fair to share what issues ones has and using other games to compare, but to use modern gaming site tactics to treat it as set in stone infallible fact will bring more heart and headaches in the end.

[WanderingMist]

Completely agree. I like the game, but I never felt as immersed in the story as I did in many single player games. It did not leave the same impression as other final fantasy stories either. Maybe it's a good story for this type of MMO format, but that doesn't make it good in comparison to other types of games. I think overall the story arc is good, but the delivery in the MMO format sets it back in terms of immersion and impact.

I'm definitely not as immersed in the ffxiv story as in other games, but I believe it has nothing to do with it being an mmorpg. In my opinion the story fails in a number of ways:

1. The writing. I'm not talking about the overall plot here, but the actual lines of dialogue. Most of the characters speak in this pseudo-Shakespearean English for literally no reason. This makes it harder to read and understand what is happening. The characters use 10 words when 3 will do, constantly. It takes 10 minutes for the Alliance leaders to say "yes I'll go to the memorial service, hopefully that will help reunite the lands against the primals and the empire". I get the feeling the writers wanted the story to sound more impressive and grand than it actually is, with this pretentious dialogue.

2. The characters you interact with. Most of the characters you interact with are, for the most part, boring, bland and completely forgettable. And as for the scions? Most of them are reduced to spouting exposition and orders at you. "go here, do this, talk to this person while I stand here doing nothing." Throughout the entire ARR storyline you don't learn anything meaningful about them, or have any meaningful interactions with them. The only main character I actually care for at all is Cid, because of his interesting backstory that plays into his motivations, and the fact that he actually helps you in your mission to stop the empire. The rest, I couldn't give a shit about.

3. The filler. This was brought up in the OP and I 100% agree. The amount of filler (even with some of the quests cut out) is insane. Not only that but a lot of the time it breaks up the flow of what is going on. You are sent out to investigate sightings of a masked man who you think is Lahabrea, one of the main antagonists in the ARR storyline, then spend the next dozen or so quests doing pointless tasks for people you meet along the way. Now I'm not against filler, as it can be useful, but only if it either develops the world or has some kind of character development. Your character is a silent protagonist, so you don't get any development there, and the majority of characters you interact with along the way are throw-a-way characters that you never encounter again. No meaningful interactions, no character development, no world-building. You could cut out about half the MSQ and not lose anything of value.

[WanderingMist]

You want to know the sad thing about all this? There IS some good story in the game. The class quest lines are SO SO SO SO much better than anything in the MSQ, with engaging characters, meaningful interactions and actual character development. The journeys you go on with Sylvie as part of the Conjurer storyline, or K'lyhia as part of the Arcanist storyline, are amazing. Even the crafting quest lines are more entertaining than the MSQ.

[Kolsykol]

The '' pseudo-Shakespearean English '' adds a lot of character to the game and the writing.
What you're essentially asking for is dumbing down of the dialogue and to make people speak like robots instead of human beings.
Yes you can dumb down sentences to be as short and quick as possible, but that's not how normal people speak.
In fact this is one of my biggest problems with the writing in WoW and it makes the dialogue in WoW sound like it was written by a toddler.
And the '' Shakespearean '' makes the dialogue sound more otherwordly and like it's from a different world with its own speech patterns which imo is actually really cool.

As for the rest about no memorable character etc I mean uh.
There are so many countless memorable characters imo, even side-characters that don't have a lot of screen time.
And the game does a great job at giving characters believable motives and not making them just black and white, characters grow a lot and are allowed to be redeemed without it feeling stupid or forced.
But at the same time just because they've had a redemption arc also doesn't mean that all is forgiven and that they're just good, it's more about empathy in a more genuine way.

It's funny that you mention Cid too because he's one of the dullest characters imo.
I mean maybe what you're saying I could sorta understand a tiny bit if you're like in mid ARR or something before the story has really begun to shine.
But if you've finished ARR and especially if you're in Heavensward then I dunno what game you're playing because it doesn't sound like FFXIV.

Edit: I understand if you haven't finished it that you might not like it yet FFXIV's story has A LOT of build-up and ARR for the most part I think acted a lot like world building.
But I think it's pretty silly to judge a story you haven't finished yet, I think ARR was alright but it's pretty commonly accepted that Heavensward is when it really stepped up.
And the story in FFXIV is one where it might not seem like it makes sense at first or like you think it's going to go one way, but then in the end it actually does make sense or is way less predictable than you thought.
It's just silly in general to judge a story you haven't finished but I think it's especially silly with FFXIV.

I know that it's sort of a meme to bring him up but if you watched Asmongold stream the game he has repeatedly changed his mind because of this.
At first he was all like '' this is stupid I hate these characters '' but now he's super into it.
I actually like that FFXIV treats me like an adult and doesn't feel like it has to frontload everything immediately it takes its time and it makes it better in the end imo.

Your take about throw-away characters in particular couldn't be more wrong.
The game constantly brings characters back and actually gives them actual roles that makes sense.

[Lenivy]

The '' pseudo-Shakespearean English '' adds a lot of character to the game and the writing.

Onyly some characters uses those. Its inconsistent.
Exposition is overall bad, especially incutscenes where bots use emotes or once agin explain mechanics from arr.

As for the rest about no memorable etc I mean uh.
There are so many countless memorable characters imo, even side-characters that don't have a lot of screen time.
And the game does a great job at giving characters believable motives and not making them just black and white, characters grow a lot and are allowed to be redeemed without it feeling stupid or forced.
But at the same time just because they've had a redemption arc also doesn't mean that all is forgiven and that they're just good, it's more about empathy in a more genuine way.

Here are characters i remember from ShB.
-Yshtola the marry sue
-Urianger as exposition/explain mastrr
-Applehound as MC
-Apple sister as useless wannabe tear moment when random girl turned into monster.
-Random girl who turned into monster
-Marry sue 2, crystal sage edition, who was used as exposition. He sadly had character growth, wich made him immortal by writers hands.
-Rabbit commander from crystarium
-Fat evil man with cool theme
-Emet Tseench best boy.
-That midget who i still remember as elven twins father.
-Evil angel lady, sad
-Girl who travels with You to find inspiration for a song and then sings it to you, while monsters attack very cool i give 10/10 to this one.
-Eulmore city and Gumball sidequest beeing a nod towards world of gumball cartoon.
-Titania the trans fairy.
-That pink trans fairy who followed you for first 15minutes of the story to introduce you to crystarium and that was about it.

I will add more if i remember.
-writteen from phone as always.

[Kolsykol]

Onyly some characters uses those. Its inconsistent.
Exposition is overall bad, especially incutscenes where bots use emotes or once agin explain mechanics from arr.


Here are characters i remember from ShB.
-Yshtola the marry sue
-Urianger as exposition/explain mastrr
-Applehound as MC
-Apple sister as useless wannabe tear moment when random girl turned into monster.
-Random girl who turned into monster
-Marry sue 2, crystal sage edition, who was used as exposition. He sadly had character growth, wich made him immortal by writers hands.
-Rabbit commander from crystarium
-Fat evil man with cool theme
-Emet Tseench best boy.
-That midget who i still remember as elven twins father.
-Evil angel lady, sad
-Girl who travels with You to find inspiration for a song and then sings it to you, while monsters attack very cool i give 10/10 to this one.
-Eulmore city and Gumball sidequest beeing a nod towards world of gumball cartoon.
-Titania the trans fairy.
-That pink trans fairy who followed you for first 15minutes of the story to introduce you to crystarium and that was about it.

I will add more if i remember.
-writteen from phone as always.

Urianger uses it more but it is consistent overall I feel like.
And with Urianger it's clearly exaggerated for the memes, he steps it up later too and it just becomes part of his charm and unique to him.

I mean you're allowed to dislike the story or whatever.
But at least as opposed to a lot of people shitting on the story you've at least finished the story I am guessing.